Schmidt Array patchbay

mcvittym

mcvittym

Well-Known Member
I’ve been trying to track down the reason why my rig is noisy. One of the culprits appears to be the patchbay in my Schmidt Array 450 pedalboard. When I connect direct to the mastermind pbc noise is minimal but when I connect through the patchbay noise increases significantly.

Has anyone else had a negative or positive experience with this kit?

Either way, any suggestions for improvement?
 
I'm using the same kit on my Schmidt Array SA900 and have never experienced problems at this kind!
 
Three things come to mind:

1: maybe check if there might be loose/bad connections in the cable(s) going to or from your patchbay to the PBC?

2: what are all the connections through the patchbay? Could there be a ground loop? If you do have anything more complex than guitar->patchbay->PBC input->PBC output->patchbay->front of 1 amp, try to diagnose when and where the noise appears by building up your signal path from simple to complex. If you can identify where in your signal path the noise crops up, that will help a lot to try to get rid of it.

3: you could have a dodgy patchbay. Is it new? Old? Seen a lot or a little travel/gigging/other abuse? Is the noise present only when you use particular pairs of jacks? Could there be a loose/bad connection inside the patchbay? My impression of Schmidt Array stuff is that it’s high quality, very high in fact, but no production process is absolutely flawless.

Good luck with trying to fix it!
 
Unfortrunately I can't help you find the problem but I can also say that I have zero problems with my Schmidt Array SA600 in combination with the PBC. Dead quiet.
 
Well, I have been side-tracked with investigating noise coming from my Midibox but I am now back to looking at the patchbay on the Schmidt Array SA450. I have discovered that if I touch the metal case of the patchbay while holding the guitar strings, then the noise goes away. I can also remove the noise if I place an isolating transformer (Radial SB-6 with ground-lift engaged) in the signal path between the guitar and the patch bay, again while holding the guitar strings. I suspect that these symptoms are the sort of thing that someone might be able to diagnose. It looks like a grounding issue. Any thoughts, anybody? If you're interested, I've got a video that demonstrates the phenomenon here: https://1drv.ms/v/s!ArAXANm40CHbgboYlcd269EIsxkkKw
 
mcvittym said:
Well, I have been side-tracked with investigating noise coming from my Midibox but I am now back to looking at the patchbay on the Schmidt Array SA450. I have discovered that if I touch the metal case of the patchbay while holding the guitar strings, then the noise goes away. I can also remove the noise if I place an isolating transformer (Radial SB-6 with ground-lift engaged) in the signal path between the guitar and the patch bay, again while holding the guitar strings. I suspect that these symptoms are the sort of thing that someone might be able to diagnose. It looks like a grounding issue. Any thoughts, anybody? If you're interested, I've got a video that demonstrates the phenomenon here: https://1drv.ms/v/s!ArAXANm40CHbgboYlcd269EIsxkkKw
Click to expand...

If the noise goes away when you touch it, it needs to be grounded. I don't know what it looks like inside the patchbay, but I would expect there to be a connection between one pair (only one!) of the audio jacks' ground and the metal case. Otherwise, there will likely be noise problems.
 
I had the same issue when using a separate input jack to go into my first pedal. I just decided to plug the guitar directly into the first pedal and it solved my problems. It just seemed like a floating ground issue that no matter what I tried it never went away. Did you try plugging your guitar directly into your PBC first, bypassing the patchbay? I have everything else coming out of the same patchbay on my SA750... Effects loop/channel switching/amp input with no issues. I also had the patchbay put on the left side of the board for my setup.
 
I have been using an SA-450 and PBC for quite a while without issue.

I just received another PBC for my second Schmidt Array Board. Today, I hooked it up and also have no ground loop issues. Both boards have my midi time based pedals in loops 7-10 and analog pedals in loops 1-6.

I can use the board with my FX Loop Amps or any amp without an FX loop simply by moving the Amp In plug from the Yellow input to the Red FX Return input.

Also, make sure you don't have your send/return cables reversed. This has shown to cause loop hum.

1zva8ew.jpg
 
JNPMusic said:
I had the same issue when using a separate input jack to go into my first pedal. I just decided to plug the guitar directly into the first pedal and it solved my problems. It just seemed like a floating ground issue that no matter what I tried it never went away. Did you try plugging your guitar directly into your PBC first, bypassing the patchbay? I have everything else coming out of the same patchbay on my SA750... Effects loop/channel switching/amp input with no issues. I also had the patchbay put on the left side of the board for my setup.
Click to expand...
Yes, I tried that and I think it worked. I'm holding out for a new patchbay that works, all the same!
 
Postscript - I have now received a new patchbay from Martyn at Schmidt Array and the ground noise problem has disappeared!
 
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